"Yes, step on it."
The girl moved up and stared fearfully at the monstrous sentinel. He
guided her up toward him. "Diagonally left--one ahead--diagonally
right. Now don't be frightened when he speaks--"
The girl came on until she stood one square behind him. Her quick
frightened breathing blended with the growing sounds of shouting from
the stairway. He glanced up at Big Joe, noticing for the first time
that the steel jaws were stained with a red-brown crust. He shuddered.
The grim chess-game continued a cautious step at a time, with the girl
following one square behind him. What if she fainted again? And fell
across a triggered tile? They passed within a foot of Big Joe's arm.
Looking up, he saw the monster's eyes move--following them,
scrutinizing them as they passed. He froze.
"We want no plunder," he said to the machine.
The gaze was steady and unwinking.
"The air is leaking away from the world."
The monster remained silent.
"Hurry!" whimpered the girl. Their pursuers were gaining rapidly and
they had crossed only half the distance to the opposing doorway.
Progress was slower now, for Asir needed occasionally to repeat through
the whole series of numbers, looking back to count squares and make
certain that the next step was not a fatal one.
"They won't dare to come in after us," he said hopefully.
"And if they do?"
"_If the intruder makes an error, Big Joe will kill_," announced the
machine as Asir took another step.
"Eight squares to go!" he muttered, and stopped to count again.
"Asir! They're in the corridor!"
Hearing the rumble of voices, he looked back to see blue-robed men
spilling out of the stairway and milling down the corridor toward
the room. But halfway down the hall, the priests paused--seeing the
unbelievable: two intruders walking safely past their devil-god. They
growled excitedly among themselves. Asir took another step. Again the
machine voiced the monotonous warning.
"_If the intruder makes an error...._"
* * * * *
Hearing their deity speak, the priests of Big Joe babbled wildly
and withdrew a little. But one, more impulsive than the rest, began
shrieking.
"_Kill the intruders! Cut them down with your spears!_"
Asir glanced back to see two of them racing toward the room, lances
cocked for the throw. If a spear struck a trigger-tile----
"Stop!" he bellowed, facing around.
The two priests paused. Wondering if it would result in his sudden
death, he rested a hand lightly against the huge steel arm of the
robot, then leaned against it. The huge eyes were staring down at him,
but Big Joe did not move.
The spearmen stood frozen, gaping at the thief's familiarity with the
horrendous hulk. Then, slowly they backed away.
Continuing his bluff, he looked up at Big Joe and spoke in a loud
voice. "If they throw their spears or try to enter, kill them."
He turned his back on the throng in the hall and continued the cautious
advance. Five to go, four, three, two----
He paused to stare into the room beyond. Gleaming machinery--all
silent--and great panels, covered with a multitude of white circles and
dials. His heart sank. If here lay the magic that controlled the Blaze
of the Great Wind, he could never hope to rekindle it.
He stepped through the doorway, and the girl followed. Immediately the
robot spoke like low thunder.
"_The identity of the two technologists is recognized. Hereafter they
may pass with impunity. Big Joe is charged to ask the following: why do
the technologists come, when it is not yet time?_"
Staring back, Asir saw that the robot's head had turned so that he was
looking directly back at the thief and the girl. Asir also saw that
someone had approached the door again. Not priests, but townspeople.
He stared, recognizing the Chief Commoner, and the girl's father
Welkir, three other Senior Kinsmen, and--Slubil, the executioner who
had nailed him to the post.
"Father! Stay back."
Welkir remained silent, glaring at them. He turned and whispered to the
Chief Commoner. The Chief Commoner whispered to Slubil. The executioner
nodded grimly and took a short-axe from his belt thong. He stepped
through the entrance, his left foot striking the zero-tile. He peered
at Big Joe and saw that the monster remained motionless. He grinned at
the ones behind him, then snarled in Asir's direction.
"Your sentence has been changed, thief."
"Don't try to cross, Slubil!" Asir barked.
Slubil spat, brandished the axe, and stalked forward. Big Joe came
up like a resurrection of fury, and his bellow was explosive in the
vaults. Slubil froze, then stupidly drew back his axe.
Asir gasped as the talons closed. He turned away quickly. Slubil's
scream was cut off abruptly by a ripping sound, then a series of dull
cracks and snaps. The girl shrieked and closed her eyes. There were two
distinct thuds as Big Joe tossed Slubil aside.
The priests and the townspeople--all except Welkir--had fled from
the corridor and up the stairway. Welkir was on his knees, his hands
covering his face.
"Mara!" he moaned. "My daughter."
"Go back, Father," she called.
Dazed, the old man picked himself up weakly and staggered down the
corridor toward the stairway. When he passed the place of the first
warning voice, the robot moved again--arose slowly and turned toward
Asir and Mara who backed quickly away, deeper into the room of strange
machines. Big Joe came lumbering slowly after them.
Asir looked around for a place to flee, but the monster stopped in the
doorway. He spoke again, a mechanical drone like memorised ritual.
"_Big Joe is charged with announcing his function for the intelligence
of the technologists. His primary function is to prevent the entrance
of possibly destructive organisms into the vaults containing the
control equipment for the fusion reaction which must periodically
renew atmospheric oxygen. His secondary function is to direct the
technologists to records containing such information as they may need.
His tertiary function is to carry out simple directions given by the
technologists if such directions are possible to his limited design._"
Asir stared at the lumbering creature and realized for the first time
that it was not alive, but only a machine built by the ancients to
perform specific tasks. Despite the fresh redness about his hands and
jaws, Big Joe was no more guilty of Slubil's death than a grinding mill
would be if the squat sadist had climbed into it while the Marsoxen
were yoked to the crushing roller.
Perhaps the ancients had been unnecessarily brutal in building such
a guard--but at least they had built him to _look_ like a destroyer,
and to give ample warning to the intruder. Glancing around at the
machinery, he vaguely understood the reason for Big Joe. Such metals as
these would mean riches for swordmakers and smiths and plunderers of
all kinds.
* * * * *
Asir straightened his shoulders and addressed the machine.
"Teach us how to kindle the Blaze of the Great Wind."
"_Teaching is not within the designed functions of Big Joe. I am
charged to say: the renewal reaction should not be begun before the
Marsyear 6,000, as the builders reckoned time._"
Asir frowned. The years were no longer numbered, but only named in
honor of the Chief Commoners who ruled the villages. "How long until
the year 6,000?" he asked.
Big Joe clucked like an adding machine. "Twelve Marsyears,
technologist."
Asir stared at the complicated machinery. Could they learn to operate
it in twelve years? It seemed impossible.
"How can we begin to learn?" he asked the robot.
"_This is an instruction room, where you may examine records. The
control mechanisms are installed in the deepest vault._"
Asir frowned and walked to the far end of the hall where another door
opened into--_another anteroom, with another Big Joe_! As he approached
the second robot spoke:
"_If the intruder has not acquired the proper knowledge, Big Oswald
will kill._"
Thunderstruck, he leaped back from the entrance and swayed heavily
against an instrument panel. The panel lit up and a polite recorded
voice began reading something about "President Snell's role in the
Eighth World War". He lurched away from the panel and stumbled back
toward Mara who sat glumly on the foundation slab of a weighty machine.
"What are you laughing about?" she muttered.
"We're still in the first grade!" he groaned, envisioning a sequence of
rooms. "We'll have to learn the magic of the ancients before we pass
to the next."
"The ancients weren't so great," she grumbled. "Look at the mural on
the wall."
Asir looked, and saw only a strange design of circles about a bright
splash of yellow that might have been the sun. "What about it?" he
asked.
"My father taught me about the planets," she said. "That is supposed to
be the way they go around the sun."
"What's wrong with it?"
"One planet too many," she said. "Everyone knows that there is only an
asteroid belt between Mars and Venus. The picture shows a planet there."
Asir shrugged indifferently, being interested only in the machinery.
"Can't you allow them one small mistake?"
"I suppose." She paused, gazing miserably in the direction in which her
father had gone. "What do we do now?"
Asir considered it for a long time. Then he spoke to Big Joe. "You will
come with us to the village."
The machine was silent for a moment, then: "_There is an apparent
contradiction between primary and tertiary functions. Request priority
decision by technologist._"
Asir failed to understand. He repeated his request. The robot turned
slowly and stepped through the doorway. He waited.
Asir grinned. "Let's go back up," he said to the girl.
She arose eagerly. They crossed the anteroom to the corridor and began
the long climb toward the surface, with Big Joe lumbering along behind.
"What about your banishment, Asir?" she asked gravely.
"Wait and see." He envisioned the pandemonium that would reign when
girl, man, and robot marched through the village to the council house,
and he chuckled. "I think that I shall be the next Chief Commoner," he
said. "And my councilmen will all be thieves."
"Thieves!" she gasped. "Why?"
"Thieves who are not afraid to steal the knowledge of the gods--and
become technologists, to kindle the Blaze of the Winds."
"What is a 'technologist', Asir?" she asked worshipfully.
Asir glowered at himself for blundering with words he did not
understand, but could not admit ignorance to Mara who clung tightly to
his arm. "I think," he said, "that a technologist is a thief who tells
the gods what to do."
"Kiss me, Technologist," she told him in a small voice.
Big Joe clanked to a stop to wait for them to move on. He waited a long
time.